Abstract

The vertical control of research and development (R&D) is becoming obsolete due to the increasing availability of useful knowledge. Industries that have relied on exclusivity or lag in exploiting their own discoveries are being challenged through the proliferation of players and better communication, which opens new opportunities for creating value. Joint ventures, spin-offs, better integration of university and industrial research, are all providing new routes to creating new products and services. This new approach is termed open innovation.

The debates concerning open innovation and the adoption of it by multinational companies present some of the most challenging issues in innovation and patent research. My analysis of these areas promises to solve the research gap identified by many scholars, as it examines one of the largest multinational corporation's commitment (IBM) to this new innovation practice. Using an original source of IBM open and closed patents I quantitatively analyse their commitment through the differences in patent quality. I conclude that IBM has committed to this process and I further reinforce the findings through an empirical study of twelve open innovation characteristics that I identify in the literature review. Overall this research refines academics understanding of the commitment to open innovation. I conclude with suggestions on how similar organisations should adopt open innovation and offer practical suggestions regarding the avenues for future research.